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Stephen Fry
has told fans he was “very, very happy” to announce his engagement to the comedian Elliott Spencer despite having hoped for a private wedding.

The QI presenter, 57, is said to have begun a romance with Spencer, 27, last year and the pair have been seen together at various public events.

Fry
said on Twitter: “Oh. It looks as though a certain cat is out of a certain bag. I’m very very happy of course but had hoped for a private wedding. Fat chance!

“Thank you all SO much for your kind congratulations. Deeply touched xxx”

The announcement marks a happy chapter for Fry, who has spoken publicly about his loneliness after previous relationships have ended.

The couple reportedly made a formal application to marry at a register office in Dereham,
Norfolk, Fry’s home county, on 23 December.

Fry’s personal assistant said the planned marriage was a private matter, adding: “Stephen Fry is very happy and proud to say that he has set the wheels in motion for a wedding sometime in the future, but no date has been set due to a busy work schedule.”

In 2010, the actor separated from his partner of 14 years, Daniel Cohen, whom Fry credits with “saving” him during periods of severe depression. He then reportedly began a new relationship with Steven Webb, 27 years his junior. But Fry was apparently single again by the summer of 2013, when he wrote in a blogpost about how he felt “lonely in a crowd of people who are mostly very nice to me. Loneliness is the most terrible and contradictory of my problems. I hate having only myself to come home to.

“It’s not that I want a sexual partner, a long-term partner, someone to share a bed and a snuggle on the sofa with – although perhaps I do and in the past I have had and it has been joyful. But the fact is I value my privacy too. It’s a lose-lose matter.”

Fry, who has bipolar disorder, has also spoken publicly about attempting suicide as recently as 2012.

The comedian Robert Webb, who starred in Channel 4’s Peep Show, was one of the well-wishers who wrote to Fry on Twitter: “Ooh! Congratulations Stephen. Marvellous news x”.

Stephen Fry explains how a few short words turned his life around as a troubled teenager, and imagines the fantasy letter he would send to Oscar Wilde to rescue him from the shame and despair that blighted his final years. The interview was filmed at Letters Live at the Southbank on World Book Night, in aid of The Reading Agency

Firstly, I wish them all the best. The age gap in itself doesn't particularly matter. It can work, occasionally. David Furnish is 15 years younger than Elton John. And Elliott is 27 - perfectly old enough to make his own judgment as to whether he wants to be with a much older man. As for Stephen Fry, he's obviously very happy.

However, I have yet to see a picture of Elliott together with Stephen Fry where he is smiling. Not good. I cannot help fearing for Stephen Fry, given his emotional vulnerability and bipolar disorder, when/if this relationship ends. The time they have been together (12 months or so) isn't long enough to decide to get married, especially with the large age gap. Stephen is still in the infatuation stage of the relationship. Elliott....it is hard to say what his feelings are....but the stony looks in the photos suggest motives other than love to me.

“It’s not that I want a sexual partner, a long-term partner, someone to share a bed and a snuggle on the sofa with – although perhaps I do and in the past I have had and it has been joyful. But the fact is I value my privacy too. It’s a lose-lose matter.”

Private life's going public sometime is a challenge to ignore when the age issue is the news.Why this old man want to show his way of powerful male dominance? Sadly unnecessary.

A PR Genius who eeks out a fortune with little talent, an overinflated ego and great grasp of social media - must be using the same PR people as the Beckham's! Plays the media like an conductor who eat up the drivel this guy puts out for their consumption. Who cares?

I recall at one point marriage as a institution was challenged. Now we are concerned about Gay people having the right to marry? So it involves legal, money and property issues. So what are we really wanting? Same old shit?

I don't know why people are bothered by age-gap relationships when most relationships don't last over a decade anyway. And if their love continues through the years, nobody should question whether it is true love. Only those in the relationship understand their love for each other.